A Thirst for Knowledge
by Lazarus75
Summary: Two years after Breaking Dawn, the Cullens have moved to Hanover, NH. Bella and the rest of the Cullen "children" attend Dartmouth college. Life at Dartmouth is going well, until a violent encounter changes the Cullen family forever.
1. Chapter 1: Turn

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**Also, I appreciate any and all reviews / proposed edits, so long as they are presented in a respectful manner. Thank you in advanced for your support and input.  
**

**Update 1 (7/28/12): Edited some verb tense and diction problems.  
**

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Chapter 1

Turn

The desk I sat at was gouged up with faint hints of writing on it. The smell told me that the janitor had tried some pretty strong chemicals to remove it. The door creaked open and "they" walked in. The Cullens. Well, two of the Cullens that is, Alice and Bella. Gorgeous, for sure, but strange. In fact, their entire family was strange; all six of them. The other four being Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward. The Cullens have to themselves and taken night classes since they moved here halfway through last semester. Alice and Bella strode past and took their seats behind me in the auditorium as I pulled out my textbook.

Art History was not exactly my first choice for a class, but it's required; though I'd much rather be sitting in one of my advanced engineering classes. A short, chubby lady with her hair up in a bun, sauntered in five minutes late. She stopped at the desk in the front of the classroom, dropped off her briefcase, and traded it for a clipboard. "Hello everyone. I trust you are all ready for tonight's lecture?" she exclaimed with controlled excitement. "Janet Appleyard?" Mrs. Klien called out. The girl two rows in front of me shot her hand into the air. "William Brant?" I lazily lifted my hand. "Eric Carver?" she continued going down her list, but I quickly faded out and began undoing the janitors attempts to clean the desk.

"We are going shopping downtown tomorrow night and that's that." I overheard Alice say with her quiet, pixie-like voice.

"I thought that you said I didn't have to go." Bella replied with outrage.

"No, I said you didn't have to go if you had something more important to do, and since there is nothing more important than shopping for a Fall wardrobe you're going."

Bella let out a sigh of resignation. So the Cullen's would be downtown tomorrow too, small world I thought to myself, but then again, we weren't exactly in the largest of towns. I quickly lost interest in their shopping plans and went back to pretending to pay attention to the class.

A couple hours later, the bell finally rang, much to my excitement. After gathering my things, I damn near sprinted out of the class. Nearly knocking down Jasper and Edward as I, practically, fell out of the classroom. "Sorry!" I choked out as I picked myself up and hurried off to the lunch room.

Even at night, the lunch room was packed and there were only a few open seats left; the Cullens' usual table and several right next to theirs. After grabbing my lunch, I sat at one of the open tables, alone, like usual. I pulled out my laptop and started working on my designs for a miniature particle accelerator for one of my other classes. It would work in theory, but I'm was still in the designing phase.

I heard the chairs behind me squeak against the floor, the Cullens had arrived. I glanced over as they sat down and noticed that they all had salads and a piece of fruit to eat. I wasn't sure if they were all on diets or just didn't really eat because I could never remember seeing them eat more than a bite or two out of their food.

"Hey Jasper, can you hand me a fork?" Edward asked his brother only a moment later. He dug into his salad, almost in response to my thought. Just another reason I found these people weird. I noticed Alice looking at me for a split second before she rose from her seat and walked out of the lunch room, with Edward and Bella soon to follow.

They didn't come back for the entire lunch break. After the bell rang the rest of them ran out so fast I barely caught it. Those Cullens just got stranger and stranger. I wondered why Alice left so suddenly. _Did I do something?_ It would just be perfect if the Cullens thought I was the weird one. That could not be a good sign.

The next night, as I headed into a movie, I spotted the entirety of the Cullens heading into a store across the street together. I had never seen their parents before. At least that's who I was assuming the other two were because they looked so much alike. Mr. Cullen was apparently some sort of doctor at one of the local hospitals. Which is great because I thought his entire family suffered from some rare disease. They were all so pale and I couldn't figure out how no one else seemed to notice. "That's seven fifty please," the cashier announced, pulling me back to the task at hand.

I went to pull out my wallet. "One second." I patted myself down and came up empty. _Where was it? I could have sworn I put it in my jacket pocket! _The lady at the ticket counter's expression had begun to shift from happy to annoyed. "Sorry, I must have left my wallet in the car," I explained, then hurried off towards my car. I had parked several blocks away and while approaching a bend in the second alley, a muffled scream erupted from ahead.

I stopped dead in my tracks, certain that the screaming was coming from just around the corner. Slowly, the screaming faded out, leaving only the sound of someone shuffling around. I used my trembling hand to brace myself against the wall and carefully peered around the corner. As I poked my head out, I saw a knocked over dumpster, some trash, and someone's body lying on the ground. I wasn't sure if they were still alive, but it looked as though they had been mauled by some sort of animal. Before I could get a good look, a noise reverberated though the alley. My head snapped back behind the corner, eyes shut, in response. _Was that person dead? What happened? And where did the thing that did that go?_

Suddenly, the world was a blur as I was ripped around the corner. I let out a howl of pain, which my attacker quickly silenced with a hand. Glancing down, I saw a woman, her face buried in my neck. My hands struggled to rip her off of me. Her skin was hard as stone and no matter how hard I struggled she didn't budge an inch. My head started spinning. I could feel myself slowly losing consciousness. The strength in my limbs began to falter and my hands slowly lost their grip on my attacker's jacket and fell to my sides. The assailant was the only thing holding me up. We remained like this for a few moments when I caught the sound of someone crying out, "It's coming from over here. I can smell it!" The pressure on my neck was violently released.

My mugger vanished instantly. As I fell to the ground, my insides began to burn like someone had torn my chest open and forced a blow torch inside. I tried to scream, but my voice was broken and all that came out is a raspy, drawn out wheeze. My body twitched and convulsed in response to the overwhelming pain that I felt coursing through my veins.

"This one's dead," someone exclaimed as I attempted to open my eyes and see who it was. "Check the other one," the voice commanded. My body was quickly restrained and my head swiveled left, then right.

"He's been bitten. What should I do Carlisle?" a woman's voice questioned.

I felt another set of hands start moving my limbs around. _Just call a damned ambulance! What are you... _The heat in my chest was abruptly magnified one hundred fold, right where my heart should have been. Only now I was certain that my heart was nothing but a pile of ashes, consumed by the torturous fire that built in my chest. My body writhed in agony, forcing my spine to curve and my chest to rise. "Damn. The venom's reached his heart." Carlisle called out in frustration.

"What do you want to do with him Carlisle?" called another man.

"We'll take him home with us. Get the car."

"He's not our problem to take car of," another woman shot back at Carlisle with an irritated tone.

"He will need our help to understand what's happening to him, Rosalie. Besides, if we don't help him it can only mean trouble for us. Now get the car!" My body was lifted off the ground, into someone's arms, and a split second later the pain finally overcame my senses and I lost track of the world around me.


	2. Chapter 2: Falling

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**Also, I appreciate any and all reviews / proposed edits, so long as they are presented in a respectful manner. Thank you in advanced for your support and input.**

**New chapters should be up every Friday. Hope you enjoy.  
**

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Chapter 2

Falling

I was thrust down an abyss, falling for an infinite amount of time. My body slowly melted away, leaving nothing but a ball of fire sailing through the empty air. Even though my body was gone, my suffering continued, escalated. I kept trying to extinguish the ball of fire with pure willpower convinced that it would end my pain. This made no difference and, if anything, it seemed like it only made it worse.

All the pain I was experiencing made me want to go home, to see my parents, even if that was impossible, and be comforted by them like when I was a little boy. What I wanted, however, didn't seem to matter. My fate was no longer in my hands. It was as though I was a passenger in my own body, just watching my own life stream past like I was some rider on a train. One moment in particular kept replaying in my mind: the reason I was like this. _In a coma? I wasn't sure. _I kept on trying to picture the person responsible.

Then I realized a bigger question my mind kept slinging at me. _What was happening to me?_ My veins had been on fire when they still existed. I ran through a gamut of possible things that could cause this feeling, but only one, impossible, option stood out. I had been envenomed. I wasn't any sort of Biology major, but being poisoned by a venom made sense because it was my veins that burst into flames first. This deduction lead my mind to it's next question: How could a human envenom me?

As I tried to figure the answer, I realized how I had never really lost track of the fire and how it was growing. It had become almost white hot, but now I could see minute lines of flame were jutting from it. Filling the areas where my veins used to be, then seeping out into the rough outline of where my body used to be. In a process that seemed to take forever the burning sensation started to become manageable, my senses began to reboot, and my body went limp.

"He's finally still. Lets get him cleaned up before we wakes," a motherly voice announced as the inferno began to recede from my fingertips and toes. I could feel several hands moving my body around.

"We got lucky that his voice was crushed," a man chuckled. "That way we didn't have to put a muzzle on him."

"Emmett!" the woman scolded him. They laid me back down.

"Sorry," replied Emmett.

"Edward. Could you bring me a bowl of water and some towels?"

"And let everyone know he'll be waking up soon," I recognized Alice's voice.

"Sure." Edward replied and I could hear him rush down a flight of stairs. In fact, I could hear every minute sound around me. From the tiniest shift in Esme's weight to the sound of water dripping from a spigot outside the house.

As Edward returned, I could feel the flames receding further, toward my heart. The fire was barely affecting me now and I could easily think around it. "Lets get you cleaned up." Esme whispered into my ear. Her voice comforted me. She began washing my skin. I must have been a mess.

As she finished, I felt the fire drain from my body and into my heart. The pain flared up again though and my chest rose up as the fire went into overdrive. The intense flames consumed themselves in a matter of seconds and as they went out I could feel the control of my body return to me. My eyes snapped wide open.

I didn't recognize the world around me. The colors and detail of everything was remarkable. I sat up to look at the room in front of me. It was nice with white walls and ceiling, a light blue carpet, and filled with dark wood tables, chairs, bookcases, a large desk which stood in front of a large window that comprised an entire wall. This must be some sort of study. Even with my contacts on, things never had this kind of vibrancy and precision like the difference between standard and high definition televisions. My nose was in overdrive as well. Aromas filled the room; mostly a honey-lilac scent, but there was a hint of something that made my nose wrinkle, a wild animal maybe. The sounds of the world were equally stunning. I could hear animals quietly passing through the brush outside, droplets of water falling from the rain gutter, the slight shifting of someone's weight nearby.

Even with all the other things going on my mind could concentrate on all of them, not equally though. The forefront of my brain was focused on the sound of the shifting weight. There was this instinct, unlike any I had ever felt before, or at least not this intensely. It began to fill my mind, and with it my muscles, with tension, an overwhelming feeling of defending myself. I gripped the table. This momentarily distracted me, because I could feel the metal supports of the table mold to the shape of my hands like Play-Doh.

"Hello." someone behind me said and my body and mind went straight back into overdrive. In a matter of a moment I shot up, off the table, my back to the closest wall, books fell around me. I was crouched over, my hands clawed, and I was making a terrible hissing noise like that of a snake. This stopped me up for a moment. _What was that? How did I get over here so fast? Why did I hiss? How did I hiss? _All these questions pushed to the front of my mind and my hands relaxed, slightly.

"Please, try to calm down. We don't mean to hurt you," Esme said this which made me want to believe her. My instincts still told me to be ready for an attack, but my mind won the battle as I pulled myself out of the crouch. I was standing, bolt upright, in less time that it took to flip on a light.I was completely confused. There was so much information streaming in; so many emotions, thoughts, and instincts all mixing together I couldn't keep it all straight. The instinct to defend myself kept trying to take hold and I knew if I let take control I would hurt someone, which was the last thing I wanted to do.

That's when I realized who was in front of me. It was the Cullens, all of them. Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle stood in front of the four girls: Alice, Rosalie, Bella, and, I assumed, Esme. They stood there like they were defending the girls from something and based on how they were all staring, it must have been me. "Jasper," Edward said, turning to Jasper. I felt a sudden wave of calm wash over me. _What was that?_

"Where am I?" I asked and heard my voice had taken on an angelic reverberation.

"You're at our home and you're safe," Carlisle tried to sound reassuring.

I started to loosen up a little bit. It seemed that everyone in the room could feel it because all of the Cullens began separating into pairs and moved through the room. I traced all their movements carefully. I was stopped up while looking around when I noticed a mirror that was reflecting the entire room back at me.

"Why don't you take a seat William," Esme with a polite tone. The mirror had my complete attention though. I looked at it slowly counted and compared the nine people I saw standing in it. Jasper and Alice stood near the window, close to the desk. Emmett and Rosalie stood near the unlit fireplace, leaning against it. Carlisle and Esme sat in a small loveseat across from the fireplace. Edward and Bella sat on the edge of the desk, backs to the window. Every single one had their eyes fixed on me. Then my vision fixed on the ninth person in the mirror. I stared for what seemed like a millennium at the pale man in the mirror. His eyes were flames and the little movements he made were smooth, almost feline like. W_ho was this person in the mirror?_

Edward let out a short chuckle and, while looking at Bella, nodded toward me. Bella glanced back at me and a look of concentration crossed her face. Edward stood up and approached me slowly. I felt the defensive instinct start to flare up again, but, just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. "That person is you," Edward pointed to the person in the mirror that was holding the bulk of my attention. I looked at Edward puzzled. _That can't be me, I can't see myself in that person at all! _"Look carefully. I'm sure you can find something that reminds him of you."

My eyes refocused on the person in the mirror. I kept coming back to the bright red eyes, but made a concerted effort to look elsewhere. After several moments of searching the perfect face I finally noticed a flaw, one I could recognize. An old, healed over cut that split my eyebrow in two near the outermost edge. I remembered a summer, years ago, where I tripped while on a hike with my parents and gashed open my eyebrow. "How can that be me?" I turned to Edward, "what happened to me?"

Everyone in the room braced themselves for Edwards response, "You were bitten by a vampire."


	3. Chapter 3: Struggle

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**Also, I appreciate any and all reviews / proposed edits, so long as they are presented in a respectful manner. Thank you in advanced for your support and input.**

**Sorry this is so late. It should have been up Friday, but I got really busy this week and didn't get a chance to profread it and make correction until yesterday.**

**And as always thanks for your support and please review. I love to hear your opinions!**

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Chapter 3

Struggle

"A vampire! Ha! Ha! That's a funny joke. But I mean it, what actually happened?" I shot back, but something in the back of my mind was telling me he wasn't exactly lying.

"That wasn't a joke. I'm sure this is a lot to take in but Edward's not lying to you," Carlisle stated bluntly.

"And I can prove it to you, William," Edward added.

"Really? How?" I exclaimed in defiance.

"Look out the window," Edward pointed and I glanced over, "See that wooden box sitting in the seat of my Volvo?" I nodded. "How long do you think it would take me to get from here," he pointed to the ground under his feet, "to the car and back if I ran as fast as I could?" I wasn't sure where he was going with this, but my brain went into overdrive anyway, estimating the steps from here to the car and how fast a man of Edward's build could run. Edward chuckled, "so what do you think?"

"Hm...maybe 20 seconds, 25 if the car's locked," I speculated.

"Keep and eye on your watch and time me," Edward glanced down at my watch.

I raised my hand and readied my watch. "Alright then. 3...2...1...Go!" I clicked the button then watched as Edward breezed out of the room, appeared outside, snagged the box, and reappeared in front of me. I hit the button on my watch. "Ok. That took you... f-f-four seconds! That's not possible!" I said with a stunned expression on my face. Emmett let out a boisterous laugh.

"Emmett!" Rosalie warned.

"Sorry," he said, but it was obvious he was holding back more laughter.

Edward set the box on the desk next to Bella and slowly approached me, "Please excuse Emmett, he doesn't have much tact." Emmett was about to retort, but Rosalie patted his leg to keep him quiet. "However, what I did is possible if you're a vampire," Edward continued.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. If I'm a 'vampire' shouldn't I want to..." my voice trailed off and my hand reached for my throat, I was nearly taken to my knees.

"Yes. Actually I'm a little surprised that you didn't feel the burn sooner, but with all the different trains of thought running through your mind I guess it makes since that you don't have much space left to think about it. That, and Bella," he nodded towards her, "is helping you keep your composure right now," Edward nodded towards her as he spoke.

"Fine..." I spoke with a slight rasp to my voice and my hand was glued to my neck, "say I believe you. How do you make this feeling stop?" I had to know. The burning sensation was now dominating my mind.

"That's a simple answer. You hunt," Carlisle responded and my gaze shifted to him.

I remembered what happened to me before I lost consciousness, "I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"It's alright, we only hunt animals, not humans," explained Carlisle, "Edward, Bella, Jasper, and Alice will go with you. They'll teach you how." I nodded in agreement as Bella got up and moved towards the window by Jasper and Alice.

"Come on!" Alice trilled as Edward motioned for me to follow and one by one each of them approached the back window and fell except for Jasper who was keeping his eyes squarely on me.

Jasper put his hand on my chest to hold me back, "I want to help you, just try to keep calm and listen to us. You may think you have your new impulses under control or might not be feeling them at all, but that's only because Bella and I are helping you." I made mental note to ask about how they were helping me. My eyes met Jasper's and I could feel my temper starting to flair up again, "Relax. I'm just telling you because while we're hunting we won't be helping you keep your urges in check." I was about to ask what he meant by urges when we were interrupted by Alice.

"Hey, are you coming?" she called from below.

Jasper moved his hand to my back and nudged me forward. I stopped when I hit the edge. _If I dropped from this height I'd destroy my ankles. _"You'll be fine!" answered Edward.

"All you have to do it take a step," Jasper demonstrated as he walked off the balcony like it was nothing. I watched him sail through the air and land as though he was just going down a single step. This little show didn't help my nerves much, but I was starting to believe the whole vampire thing more and more with each passing second. With a small amount of hesitation I took the first step into, what I later learned would be, my new life.

I fell, but not like I thought I would. It was as if I was falling in slow motion and my body had enough time to react in any way I wanted. My feet shifted in preparation for the landing and I braced myself for impact. When I hit the ground it was just like the others, as though I had simply walked down a step. I marveled at what I had just done and was finally convinced. They were telling me to truth. _I'm a vampire._

I should have been appalled at what I was becoming, but, somehow, I was giddy with excitement. _As long as I could manage not to hurt someone this could be a good thing._ A tiny smile crossed my face as I looked from one to the next searching for a cue to follow. Bella ran off with Alice soon to follow and they quickly disappeared into the forest.

"Just try to run as fast as you can. The speed will come naturally," and with that Edward sped off, with Jasper in tow. I concentrated on the direction they had gone and darted after them. Catching faint glimpses of them in the distance, I pushed myself to catch up. It was amazing to see the forest stream past me in slow motion. To a normal person it would look like the blur of colors a person would see who was looking out a car window while driving through a forest, but even at this speed I could make out even the tiniest of details.

After running for, what seemed to be, several miles, I was catching up when all of them came to a sudden stop. I zipped past them slightly as I came to a stop in a river bed. Alice laughed softly. I had gotten my new pants wet. _Wait new pants? _Checking myself I finally realized that all of my clothes had been changed. _What? When did... Did they change my clothes while I was out? _Edward let out a single chuckle. If I wasn't already embarrassed I was now.

"We had to change them. Your old ones were torn and covered in blood." Edward replied to my thoughts again. "And don't worry, the only people who saw anything are Emmett and Esme." Alice looked at Edward. "Oh, and Alice did too, in a way." It probably looked like two red stoplights had been shoved into my cheeks with my current skin tone.

"Edward, you're embarrassing him more," Bella nudged him, "Let's get back to the task at hand."

"Sorry," Edward mouthed.

"Alright. Let's hunt," Jasper began.

"Jazz let's let Bella and Edward handle this," Alice interrupted, "It will work out the best."

Jasper nodded to Alice, "Sure. We won't be far if you need help."

"They won't," Alice finished then grabbed Jasper and they ran off.

Confusion filled my face, unsure of how to get begin. Bella noticed this and took a step closer, "Close your eyes," I followed her command, "now listen and smell the world around you. You won't find a smell that will truly satisfy you, but you will find some that are close seconds." I concentrated on the sounds and scents of the forest. There was nothing around me that was 'satisfying' so I searched further out. A group of deer had caught my attention to the southwest, at least that's what I thought they were, and the burn in my throat intensified.

"You're right, those are deer to the southwest." Edward confirmed as I opened my eyes and looked to Bella for the next step.

"Now just let your instincts guide you." continued Bella as the look of concentration left her face. Something inside me took hold. A feeling, one similar to the one that had taken over when I first woke up. With the return of these feelings the scent began to overtake my mind.

I took a deep breath; the fire flared kicking my instincts into overdrive, and I crouched down. It was similar to my crouch from earlier. A moment later, my body rocketed forward like a laser guided missile past Edward and Bella.

Within moments I was near the edge of a river, stealthily observing the deer. I was selecting a target, which ever smelled like it had the most of the overwhelming scent. It was an easy choice, the largest one in the herd. A buck the size of a large motorcycle was sitting at the edge of the river lapping up the water. I spotted Edward and Bella, hidden in the brush like me, across the river. They nodded in approval and immediately surged forward out of the trees.

Before most of the herd even knew what was happening I had grabbed the buck by the back, Edward has snagged another, and Bella was pulling one to the ground. The buck and I slammed into the ground with the buck on top of me. He felt so light and soft. My grip didn't falter, my muscles didn't tire, and my body knew what to do next. My teeth sliced into the buck's neck and it's blood began pouring into my mouth; I drank and the fire in my throat began to dull.

The blood tasted great, but not perfect. Something was missing, but at this point I didn't care. It would do and the furnace in my neck was cooling, slowly. Then, suddenly, the buck was empty and a little lighter. I dropped it to the ground and realized this had all taken place in only a couple seconds. I needed more and I spotted another deer trying to flee. It fell as fast as the buck and so did the third.

After the last one I was finally starting to feel steady. The burning was almost gone. My mind recaptured control of my body from my instincts. I rose from the ground pushing the last deer off of me. Edward and Bella stood a short distance away. By my count, they had each taken two down and had finished a few seconds before me. They spun around and examined me; I did the same.

My clothes were completely disheveled and had blood all over them, but Edward and Bella's were perfect. I tried to fix them but in the struggles they had been torn and stained beyond repair. I felt terrible about the clothes they had borrowed me.

"Don't worry about them. We have plenty," Edward tried to calm me as I fussed over the clothes.

"Yes, we do." confirmed Alice.

"How did he do?" Jasper questioned as he and Alice entered the clearing.

"A bit sloppy, but pretty good for his first time. Better than mine." answered Bella as she and Edward approached me. Edward placed his hand on my shoulder.

Jasper pointed towards the house, "Let's head back then."


	4. Chapter 4: Answers

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**To everyone who reads this please review / comment / PM me about the story. I love to hear from you on your thoughts opinions or ideas. Critique can only make it better so I definitely appreciate it!**

**Also, sorry again that this is late. Life has just been crazy lately and I haven't had much free time to write. As such, there will not be a new chapter this Friday, August 24th. I know this sucks, but I am hoping to be back on my regularly scheduled...schedule...by the next Friday, the 31st. Please understand that I do this because I want to keep the quality up instead of letting it slide to push these chapters out. I hope you all enjoy!  
**

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Chapter 5

Answers

As we arrived back at the house, Esme was standing there with some new clothes. Apparently, they knew I'd come back looking like I had went twelve rounds with a made me feel better about the way I was returning their clothes. Esme handed me the new attire, "You can change upstairs." I smiled at her, took the clothes, and headed upstairs.

When I reached the bathroom, which was lavish with gold and mahogany accents, I locked the door and began to strip down. My reflection caught my attention once again. Now feeling a little more in control, I inspected myself, carefully. Blood lightly coated my neck, along with streaks on my arms where I had wiped it from my face. There were two towels hanging next to the sink which I used to clean myself up. Then I threw the towels into the clothes hamper behind me. When I was human this much blood would have made me nauseous.

I began looking myself over once more now that the blood was gone. My skin tone was pale in the extreme, my eyes had a fiery red tint, and I no longer had a need to wear my glasses. Even with all the changes, I could still recognize the nearly six foot tall, slender almost lanky individual in front of me. My short brown hair, pointed nose, large hands, several scars, and my laid back stance were all telltale signs that it was me. Anyone else who recognized me would be suspicious of the sudden and extreme changes to my appearance and the eyes would freak anyone out, myself included. _Hold on. Why are my eyes red and the Cullen's were a golden brown?_

I put on the clean clothes, double checked myself to make sure I had gotten all the blood and dirt off, then threw the soiled, torn clothes into the trash bin as I walked out. Voices trailed up from down stairs, "No. Absolutely not, Carlisle," said a stern voiced Rosalie.

"We are not just going to throw him out. He's still has very little actual control over himself," replied Carlisle.

"I don't see how that's our problem. We didn't turn him, so we have absolutely no responsibility for him," her statement emphasized by a loud bang.

"Rose, would you want to be left alone with everything you felt after Carlisle turned you? Without any sort of guidance as to what's happening to you?" questioned Esme.

There was a slight pause before Rosalie responded, "Well, no, but I..."

She was cut off by an excited Alice, "Then he's staying. Now let's stop this bickering. I told you that it would end up with him here regardless of what you said."

"Fine!" Rosalie huffed and a moment later a door slammed shut. She spewed insults as I heard her voice trail off.

"Rose!" Emmett called after her and the door slammed again.

"We had better go shopping and get some more clothes for him, Jazz." called Alice as the door opened and closed for a third time.

I realized I had froze at the top of the stairs, unsure if I should go down. It seemed that I wasn't exactly a pleasant subject to discuss for some of them. Carlisle appeared at the bottom of the staircase, "There you are. Come on down. I'm sure you have plenty of questions for us." As I headed down the stairs, hesitantly, and nodded at Carlisle he continued, "And please excuse Rosalie. She means well; she just wants to keep our family safe."

We entered the kitchen and I saw Edward, Bella, and Esme sitting at the island counter. Carlisle took a seat next to Esme, while Edward pulled out the seat next to him; I sat down.

Edwards turned to me, "First, lets answer some of the questions you have," he waived a hand at me to proceed.

"Um...alright. Well, first: are you psychic?" I pointed to Edward.

"I can hear your thoughts, yes." he poked his head with his index finger.

"Hm..." I nodded, "what did Jasper mean by 'helping me with my urges' while we were hunting earlier?"

"Ah, well, I'm not the only special one in this family. Bella," Edward motioned to her, "can protect the minds of herself and others, Jasper can influence peoples emotions, and Alice has visions of the future." I thought about this for a moment, but didn't really react.

"You don't seem surprised by any of this." interjected Esme.

I let out a small chuckle, "I just figured that since I now know vampires exist that it wouldn't really make any sense to be skeptical at this point."

"Probably a good attitude to have." Bella chimed in with a smile which made me smile too.

I continued, "Ok, I get how Jasper and Alice can be helpful, but I don't get how Bella is 'helping' me."

Bella answered, "Well, we weren't sure my gift could help. You see, for me its an an actual barrier that is always encompassing me. Protecting my mind from other mental powers, such as Edward's mind reading." Edward looked frustrated in response.

"I still don't see how it helped me," I responded in confusion.

Raising her hand to silence me, Bella kept going, "The reason we thought that if I encompassed you with my shield that it would help keep your instincts at bay is because it did the same for me after becoming a vampire."

I wasn't sure how to respond, "I...really?"

"Yes," Edward responded, "we were all surprised by it too." Carlisle and Esme nodded in agreement.

"I had time to prepare myself beforehand as well. I'm sure that helped," added Bella.

There was a brief moment of silence as I was unsure of what to ask next, which Carlisle took as a cue to continue with another subject, "As you may have guessed from the hunt earlier, you're very strong, fast, and all of your senses are greatly improved. However, you have to be careful of direct sunlight."

"Is it like in movies where I start on fire?" I replied.

"Well no, but your skin will reflect the sunlight that hits it like it was made of crystals or diamonds.

"That's...unexpected," I wasn't sure what to make of that.

"We believe its just another thing that we can use to attract humans. Just like our scent and the sing-song tone to our voices," Carlisle explained, "The problem being that that part easily distinguishes us. On a single, isolated person it will probably catch them by surprise, but on a group or in public it would risk exposure to the world."

"And the Volturi, the vampire government, would kill you for exposing us," Edward added.

"So this Volturi is the judge, jury, and executioner for vampires," I surmised.

"Essentially," confirmed Carlisle while he interwove his fingers.

A moment later I asked, "Is it normal to be able to think of like 10 things at once? Cause my brain has been on constant picture in picture in picture since I woke up."

Edward smiled, "Yes, it is normal to have several trains of thought going at once. You just have to concentrate." Two more questions formed simultaneously in my head. Edward, without missing a beat, answered them, "Your eyes will be like that for only a couple months, as long as you keep to the animal blood diet and no, you will have to stay away from people for a little while."

"How long?" I questioned, then worried about the response.

Carlisle responded with a look of sympathy, "At least a couple months. Even with Bella and Jasper's help, the scent of human blood will, most likely, overwhelm you."

"But what about school?" I exclaimed my temper flaring.

Seeing the look building on my face, Esme was about to say something when Emmett interjected from behind us, "You'll have to skip it for a while, its not like it's that important." His comment enraged me.

I jumped out of my seat and hollered, "it's important to me!" in my head and out loud with such ferocity that it seemed like the surroundings shifted in response. In fact, they had moved. Everyone jumped to their feet and began looking around sporadically searching for the cause of the sudden and violent shaking that had resonated though the house. It had shattered, shook, and smashed various bobbles, plants, and a few panes of glass.


	5. Chapter 5: 180

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**To everyone who reads this please review / comment / PM me about the story. I love to hear from you on your thoughts opinions or ideas. Critique can only make it better so I definitely appreciate it!**

**I know this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but it felt like the right place to end it after really looking it over a few times. ****Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter and you're excited for another. It will be a turn around for the character so don't expect him to remain depressed forever (That would just be boring).**  


**Oops, thought I published this yesterday, but apparently I only put it in my doc manager. That's my fault, sorry all.  
**

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Chapter 5

180°

Capitalizing on the distraction allowed me to dart up the stairs and into one of the rooms. I was furious; I hadn't worked as hard as I had in the last couple of years to just have all the effort stolen by some woman in an alley who can't control herself! My head spun around searching for an escape route.

Home was my goal and no one would stop me. I finally spotted the latch to the sliding glass door, opened it, and flew out of it like lightening. Making a snap decision about the direction, I shot through the forest trying to find some landmark to indicate where I was. Figuring they would be on my tail any second now, I forced myself to run as fast as possible. I was still giddy with how fast I could move and my supercharged senses.

I got a little cocky when I encountered a large trench created by a flowing river. In quick succession, my feet dug into the ground, my body leaned forward, my leg muscles bunched up, and I soared across the trench. From an outside perspective I would probably look like an arrow as I hung low to the ground as I flew. Upon reaching the other side my feet glided just above the ground for several feet scraping bushes and grass before finally touching down.

Suddenly a sweet scent caught my nose. Whatever it was I wanted it. I...I craved it and my throat burned again. _But I just ate. Why... _I lost my train of thought as my instincts took over. My body began moving like a hunting panther. I crept through the forest towards the delicious aroma.

As I got closer the thirst intensified. I kept trying to figure out exactly what I was doing but every time I tried my brain was overtaken by thoughts of how and where to move, how to stay as quiet as possible, and my general surroundings, which I scanned for other threats.

The forest finally broke into a small clearing with a single house sitting in the middle. I was looking at the side of the house and could see a woman outside, facing away from me and sitting in a chair, working on a laptop and listening to music with earphones. I didn't know who she was, but her scent was amazing and it completely overtook my thoughts. My eyes checked the surroundings and house for any others that might interfere; she was completely alone. A grin stretched across my face and I prepared to strike.

I began to surge forward, however just past the edge of the forest I was grabbed by my arms, legs, waste, and neck. Whoever it was drug me back into the forest. I struggled violently against my captors.

"Bella, Jasper." ordered Carlisle.

It was the Cullens, of course. They were attempting to restrain me, but even with all eight of them they were having trouble holding me down. Emmett had moved from holding my waist to sitting on my chest when they had pulled me to the ground a few hundred yards away from the forest's edge. Edward, who was trying to hold my right arm down, was thrown several feet into the forest by a powerful snap of my arm, though he immediately took his post up again. _I wanted the woman; I wanted her blood._ The struggle continued as I tried to completely break free. _Wait...what was I thinking? I don't want to hurt her or anyone else for that matter! _Slowly, my instincts seemed to recede, which helped me get a hold of myself. As I calmed down, I went limp.

The Cullens were careful though, and we remained locked in our positions for several minutes. I looked into each of their eyes one by one. Carlise, Esme, Edward, Bella, and Alice all looked worried, but somewhat relieved. The others however were varied: Jasper glared at me completely bored, Rosalie seemed annoyed, and Emmett appeared to be entertained. I was perfectly happy to just sit there and not move, their weight felt like nothing on me, and they felt the same, but they cautiously moved off of me. I remained frozen, until Carlisle offered me his hand.

Getting to my feet, I stared at them, ashamed. I had nearly killed that woman; I wanted to kill her. A moment later, Esme put her arm around me. An attempt to comfort me. We all began making our way back to the house while most of them kept telling me things like, "it happens when you're young," "don't blame yourself, you can't control your instincts yet," and the topper was, "Don't sweat it." However, I ignored what they said, I knew the truth: I was a monster and couldn't be around people until that ceased to be. Any enjoyment I had gotten out of my new abilities was gone and all I wanted to do was be left alone.

When we arrived back at the house Esme tried to bring me into the living room on the second floor, but I wandered off and sat on the porch just outside one of the sliding windows. As I walked out, Esme and a few others seemed like they were about to say something or pull me back, but Edward stopped them. I guess he had heard all of my thoughts as we headed back and knew what I wanted. _Thank you Edward._ He responded with a slight nod.

My legs hung off the deck as I stared at the ground. I decided that if I couldn't control myself I would just sit here and stay away from everyone. I wasn't a violent person before and I refused to be one now. It began to rain as the day went on, but I remained a literal statue. I couldn't get cold or sick so what did it matter to me.

The rain continued for several days. I was sure some of the others were getting concerned, especially Edward, who likely heard me consider killing myself at some point in the past few days. Though I had reasoned myself out of this due to the fact that, according to them, I would eventually be able to control myself after a few months, when my newborn strength began to wane and I was, apparently, nigh indestructible. It would still be difficult at first, but with enough effort I should be able to reign it in. Lately, I had been thinking about sitting here until those few months have passed, but that plan was already starting to look impossible; the thirst was growing again.

I needed to eat soon, it had been about two weeks since I had become a monster and my throat felt like a hunk of petrified wood. Carlisle had asked at two different times in the last week and Rosalie, probably grudgingly, once if I wanted to go hunting with them. I had refused with a simple shake of my head in both cases. The only way I was going hunting was if Bella or Jasper were going with me. At least then I stood a chance of not killing an innocent person.


	6. Chapter 6: Home

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**To everyone who reads this please review / comment / PM me about the story. I love to hear from you on your thoughts opinions or ideas. Critique can only make it better so I definitely appreciate it!**

**So once again, I am late. This is getting ridiculous, but work is getting crazy and I've had a run in with some writer's block. Anyway, I hope the wait was worth it and I hope you all enjoy. Special thanks goes to Nyx'sReincarnation for the constant reviews and Freedom of Creation for the initial boot to the rear to keep me going at the start. Thank you both so much and I appreciate the help.**

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Chapter 6

Home

I counted the months as they passed by. Well, it seemed like months had passed by, but since time doesn't mean much to me anymore I had lost track after the first. Most of the time I had spent sitting on the porch, only getting up to go hunting with Jasper, Bella, or both because with them I felt more relaxed to hunt.

When I wasn't hunting to slake the thirst I spent the remainder of my time listening and watching the forest as animals passed by until I found out that the Cullens had a few extremely fast cars in their large garage. I had been studying advanced courses in mechanical engineering so I prayed that they would let me look at the cars and, if I was lucky, make a few modifications I had always wanted to try. The only sore spot had been Rosalie, who refused to let me within 10 feet of her BMW.

The Cullens had been nice enough to pay for prototypes of parts I had designed myself. A few days later when the parts arrived I asked Edward if I could try it out on his Volvo. He was hesitant at first but eventually permitted me to when he saw how much it meant to me. Rosalie however remained skeptical, she apparently knew a thing or two about modifying the cars and didn't think my new air intake and supercharger would be any better than the ones she had already bolted on. It only made me determined to prove her wrong, after all I was going to school for an advanced degree in mechanical engineering.

After making the changes, Rosalie made it a point to go with Edward on his test drive. I sat at, I guess it was my home now, waiting for them to return with their judgment. Confident that my new parts would be an improvement.

To try and keep me from returning to my normal post on the deck, Emmett challenged me to a game of chess. He wasn't very good at it and within three turns I had already taken one of his bishops. A few turns later I took his queen and the game quickly went south from there.

I had always been a bit competitive, Jasper and Edward probably felt that when I was arguing design choices with Rosalie a few days prior. From what I could figure, the two of them had probably used this information to devise ways to keep me from slinking back into my depression. If this wasn't the case I couldn't understand why Emmett would want to play chess, he was absolutely horrendous at it.

The Cullens then put plan number two into action, which was the same as the first plan but with different games. The time passed by quickly with these distractions, but eventually we ended up playing poker while they asked me about myself. It felt nice to talk about me and not my vampire side for once. "Do you have any family?" Alice said while flipping the river card.

Throwing a couple chips into the pot I responded, "No. Not anymore."

Jasper followed with a few chips of his own, "What happened to them?"

"Well, they..." I hesitated a little, "t..they died about six years ago when I was 14."

"Sorry about your parents." declared Alice with a sympathetic look.

After an moment of awkward silence Jasper followed up with, "Do you have any other family?" then Alice folded her hand.

I grinned a bit at my hand, "No, I was an only child, so I didn't have any siblings."

"Grandparents?" Alice questioned.

"Not that I'm aware of." I explained as Alice folded.

Jasper asked the next logical question while motioning for me to show my cards, "If you've been alone since you were 14, who took care of you?"

"Mostly myself, but I bounced from foster home to foster home 'till I was 16 and went to college." I finished my statement by throwing down my cards, revealing the full house I had been holding.

"You went to college at 16?" he threw down his two pair disappointed, "that's pretty impressive."

"My parents had put me into advanced classes when I was in elementary school and I just kept with it after they died. I figured it's what they would have wanted," I pulled my winnings back from the middle of the table.

"So you're about to graduate then?" Alice chimed in as she collected and shuffled the cards.

I organized my chips, "Yeah, I had just started my senior year when," I gestured from my head to down with both hands, "this happened."

"I'm sorry we're keeping you from finishing, but you don't want to hurt anyone do you?" Alice quickly responded.

"Of course not," I stated with a fervor, "But you don't need to apologize to me, you've only tried to help me."

Alice handed the cards to Jasper as he looked at me, "We understand that you feel like you've been dealt a terrible hand, but we certainly don't want to see you depressed all the time, nor do we want you to try and kill yourself."

"He heard that did he?" I let out a slight chuckle, "I never actually intended to. And sorry I've been so depressed lately. Honestly, I appreciate everything you've done for me."

Alice smiled, "We know you do. We're just glad you finally found something to pass the time with, instead of sitting on the deck."

I heard a car pull up finally, it had been nearly 3 hours since we had seen Edward and Rosalie. Alice seemed excited about it, but she lives with them. _So why would she be excited about their return?_

Emmett dashed out of the room, quickly followed by Jasper and Alice. I was a bit confused as to what was going on, but my curiosity as to how my parts had performed got the better of me and I strolled towards the garage after them.

My path however became blocked by Edward and Rosalie who, surprisingly, had a smile on her face. "Your parts worked terrifically!" she exclaimed.

I was taken aback by her reaction, it was the first time she had actually seemed to like me. I decided to go with the confident approach, "I knew they would."

"I'm just surprised you aren't mad that you were wrong," Edward added.

Rosalie glared at Edward then explained, "Well, I usually just order the parts I need, I don't create them. I guess I'm just a little impressed by him."

"Well those are words I've practically never heard you say," bellowed a laughing Edward.

Rosalie shot Edward another disdainful glance, which immediately silenced him, "Either way, I was impressed. We should talk shop again soon." She then stormed out towards the back yard.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be fine. Come on I have something to show you," Edward began leading me upstairs.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Edward continued to lead me down the hall to a room at the end I had never seen anyone enter or exit. Stopping just before the room Edward turned, "So the rest of us have been talking and since you intend to be a 'Vegetarian' like the rest of us and want to go back to college, we would like you to live with us."

I was stunned again, "You want me to stay here permanently?"

"As part of our family, yes."

"Wait, wait, wait. Why?" I gazed at him with a raised brow.

Edward placed his hand on the door handle while still looking at me, "Because we all want the best for you. Well, actually, Rosalie was against the idea, but you seem to have fixed that problem." He gave me a big crooked grin.

"It would be nice to have some sort of stable family again."

"So then it's decided!" I heard Alice declare as she stepped past me carrying several large boxes.

Edward opened the door to let her in the room, "This is your room, at least for now."

"For now?" I responded worried and with my brow raised.

"We are moving in a couple more months," Emmett added carrying more boxes into the room.

I looked at Emmett puzzled when Edward responded to my expression, "We are moving to give you a chance to go back to school."

Suddenly, I felt like I was about to cry, which of course I couldn't. They were doing so much for my sake. "Thank you," I replied when I couldn't think of anything else to say. Edward then motioned for me to enter.

The room was amazing, with cream colored walls that were accented with dark wood panels and frames for the windows, including a large glass door to the porch. There was a mahogony desk sitting to one side, a plush couch, and the wall across from the couch was made of bookshelves, except for the big T.V. built into the center of the shelves. In other words, I loved it. I did have one wish though: my own belongings.

"What do you think are in the boxes?" questioned Edward.

I turned just as Jasper entered with two more boxes, "Is that my stuff?!"

Both Jasper and Edward nodded.

After the last couple months, my spirits were finally lifted. After talking with the Cullen's more I was going to get my wish of going back to school, just not my original school. The entire family was moving to a new school in a few months that I could attend. In the meantime, they were going to try an help me acclimate to controlling myself around humans. How they planned to do this I had no idea, but I was ready for anything.


	7. Chapter 7: Floating

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**To everyone who's been waiting for a new chapter: sorry this took so long. Life happened, but I think I should be able to get back to updating, fairly, regularly, but don't quote me on that. :D**

**To everyone who's left reviews: Thanks for the feedback, it really helps a lot and I appreciate it so much!**

**To everyone who reads this new chapter: Thanks for giving the story so far a look see and please leave a review, they help keep me motivated and to improve my writing and the story overall.**

**And last but not least, if you want me to take a look at your story or need any help, just let me know. I'm glad to give back to the people that have helped me so much in this endeavor.**

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Chapter 7

Floating

It had only taken me one night to get all of my stuff unpacked and organized at full vampire speed. When I was done I spent a couple hours listening to some of the music I had on my computer before heading down stairs to begin my 'human scent training' as Emmett put it.

When I got downstairs I found Emmett watching baseball on the television while Rosalie sat next to him reading some gossip magazine. I could hear Carlisle and Esme in the kitchen as well and the smell wafting from it stopped me dead in my tracks. They were cooking. _Why are they cooking? Where they inviting a human over over? That's crazy, they wouldn't do that this soon._

Stepping into the kitchen, I found I was right about my assumption. There were two big stew pots sitting on the burners, Carlisle stood next to them continuously stirring them. Meanwhile, Esme was cutting up vegetables. "Oh William, hand me that pack of bacon please," she pointed towards the counter next to me with the knife.

"Uh, sure," I grabbed the pack of bacon, which smelled terrible, walked over to the island that Esme was working on, and set it down next to her. "Why are you cooking?" the obvious question popped out of my mouth.

"We're making stew for Renesmee and Jacob," Carlisle explained.

"Like Nessie will actually have any," Emmett chimed in as he entered the kitchen and grabbed the sports section of the paper.

"She might decide to change her diet now that she's spent so long with Jacob's tribe," Esme retorted.

"Doubtful, but at least Wolf-boy will eat it," remarked Emmett as he strode out of the room.

I asked another obvious question, "Who's Renesmee and Jacob?"

Carlisle and Esme both stopped and turned to each other then to me. "That's right we haven't had much of a chance to mention them to you yet," Carlisle realized, "Renesmee is Bella and Edward's daughter..."

I cut him off, "Their daughter?" Carlisle smiled and took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Let me explain," Carlisle motioned for me to sit down as well. I sat and he proceeded to explain who Renesmee was, her history, and her birth; which also explained how Bella was turned and even explained who Jacob was. "So, wait, you're telling me that not only are vampires," I pointed to myself, "real, but so are werewolves?"

Carlisle let out a small chuckle, "Yes."

I thought about this for a second, then shook my head, "I don't know why that surprised me. Should have figured it was possible after becoming a creature of myth myself."

Esme smiled at me, "Well, you have been a little preoccupied." Carlisle nodded in agreement.

"Where have they been for the last few months?"

"Staying with Jacob's family so he can spend some time with them. He hasn't seen them in over a year and Nessie wanted to get out of the house for a while over the summer break that just ended," Carlisle explained.

"Uh, I hate to bring this up, but if she's half human isn't there a chance I won't be able to..." I gulped and looked down.

Carlisle stood and put his hand on my shoulder, "Well she smells mostly like a vampire so you shouldn't have much trouble, especially now that its been a couple months since you turned. And if this goes well, which I expect it to," he added trying to reassure me, "then we will begin bringing you closer to town."

"You really think I'll be able to handle this?" I looked up at Carlisle with worried eyes.

Carlisle squeezed my shoulder, "Definitely." He went back to helping Esme with the soup when I heard a car begin to drive up towards the house.

I returned to the living room and took a seat in the chair next to Emmett, praying that I would be able to handle Renesmee's scent. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt the daughter, granddaughter, and niece of the Cullens after all they've done for me so far. Plus, according to Carlisle, Jacob would probably dedicate his existence to ending mine. I leaned towards Emmett, "Hey, if I even start to move towards..."

"You aren't going to do anything," Emmett responded knowing what I was about to ask him to do.

Rosalie piped in from behind her magazine, "And even if you do there's at least eight vampires and a werewolf that would stop you."

I could hear footsteps heading towards the front door so I sat back in the chair, closed my eyes, and braced myself. As the front door swung open, two new scents began drifting into the room as I heard three sets of feet walk through the door. Immediately, I noticed that the first new scent to enter the room was absolutely horrendous, which was comforting, but I figured it was the werewolf's scent. The other new scent, however, was surprising. I was expecting to react the same way I had to the girl in the clearing, but I didn't. Renesmee's scent was bearable. _Thank god. _Edward let out his distinctive snicker, in response, from the entrance hall. Then the door shut and I heard, "Where is the new leech?" from an unfamiliar voice, "I want to meet him before I let Renesmee in here with him."

"Ugh...Jacob, we told you she'll be fine. Besides, I don't think it's a great idea to piss off the new vampire before you've even introduced yourself. Now, let her come inside," Bella defended me from around the corner. _Thanks Bella._

"Hey, we all agreed that the fact that you could control yourself after becoming a vampire was partially because of your shield ability and also your months of getting used to the idea and knowing what was coming," Jacob retorted, "Well, he has none of that so sue me if I would rather be a little cautious."

I was a little offended by his lack of faith in my abilities, even though, deep down, I knew he was probably right.

"Fine," Carlisle conceded, "He's right around the corner...be nice." I got up as Carlisle finished his sentence. Jacob, a very tall, russet-skinned man with short cropped, black hair, walked around the corner and began eyeballing me, followed closely by Edward and Bella.

"His eyes are still red!" Jacob exclaimed with a deep growl which sparked my temper.

"Don't growl at me mutt breath!" I hissed back at him, showing my teeth and ready for a fight. Emmett and Rosalie both giggled.

"What'd you call me?" Jacob barked at me a look of fury crossing his face and he began to back up a bit.

"Jacob! Don't you dare phase in the house!" Alice yelled as she she flitted into the house at light speed, followed by Jasper, the door closing behind him. "The last time you did that you ended up breaking so much stuff it took Esme and I three months to replace it all."

Jacob looked over at Alice and, seeing the rage building in her eyes, took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. _Mental note: do not make Alice mad._

Edward turned from Jacob to me, "That's probably a good idea..." Edward's voice trailed off. I stared back at his dumbfounded expression.

"What?" I questioned and looked down thinking there was something on my shirt. The rest of the Cullens and Jacob all turned to see what had made Edward stop short, which meant they were all staring at me. "What!?" I was freaking out a bit trying to figure out why they were all staring.

"I'm not the only one seeing that, am I?" Edward asked to no one in particular.

"What the?" Jacob looked at me baffled.

"Is he..." Esme started.

Emmett looked excited, "That's pretty cool." I looked at them all, the confusion on my face deepening.

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't know that he's the one doing that," Carlisle contributed to the one sided conversation.

"Alright, seriously, would someone tell me what's going on?" I pleaded.

Edward pointed behind me, "See for yourself." I turned around to see what was causing them all to gawk and I was not prepared for what I saw.

I just about fell on my butt because floating behind me, in mid air, was an antique vase from a shelve on the wall I was now facing. However, only a moment after seeing the vase floating, it fell to the ground, but Alice caught it just in the nick of time. We all stood there for a minute, dumbfounded.

"Can I come in now? I'm bored out here." Renesmee called from the front porch.


	8. Chapter 8: Timepiece

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**Thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed the story so far, it's nice to know that some of you are enjoying it. :D**

**Also, thanks to Nyx'sReincarnation for the continued reviews and support.**

**If you read this story, even if you don't like it, please leave a review. It REALLY helps keep me motivated to improve and keep these chapters coming.**

**Anyway, thanks for the support and enjoy!**

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Chapter 8

Timepiece

Everyone snapped out of their surprised expressions pretty fast. "Come on in," Bella called to Renesmee; a little girl with dark mahogany ringlets that hung down past her shoulders, brown eyes, and fairly pale skin with rosy cheeks; who immediately stepped inside carrying two luggage bags.

"Wait!" exclaimed Jacob as he stepped between Renesmee and I, "Don't you dare hurl anything at Renesmee." Alice placed the vase back in the shelf as I turned to face Jacob, my tempter beginning to flare again.

"Jacob, if he's going to hurl anything it would probably be at you," Emmett retorted, "So why don't you just take Renesmee's stuff upstairs and stay there for a bit."

Jacob was about to react to Emmett comments, but Renesmee nudged him in the back of his legs with the luggage, "Jacob, just take the bags upstairs."

"But..." Jacob turned and looked down at Renesmee.

"I don't need you protecting me 24/7. I can protect myself." Renesmee proclaimed meeting Jacob's gaze with an intense look.

A moment later, Jacob grumbled, "Fine," grabbed the bags from Renesmee, and trudged upstairs in defeat. I laughed a little inside that this little girl had so much pull over the exceptionally tall werewolf, at least the thought made my fury subside.

Everyone began to relax as Jacob left the room. We decided to figure out how my power worked later, but first we needed to deal with the Renesmee situation. "Come on," Carlisle said then he and Esme went back into the kitchen to finish the soup with Renesmee following. Jasper, who looked bored now that we had decided to deal with my ability later, took a seat on another chair in the corner, and begin watching the baseball game as well, when Alice plopped down in his lap. This left Edward, Bella, and I standing awkwardly on opposite sides of the room.

"How are you coping with the scent?" Bella asked, breaking the awkward moment with an equally awkward question.

I sniffed the air a bit and I could smell Renesmee's pungent scent with full force now. It was definitely appealing, but Carlisle had been right about how much of a vampire she smelled like. Just enough to keep the burning in my throat from going into overdrive. "I'm fine," I replied, "but the dog upstairs is already getting on my nerves and I haven't known him for more than 10 minutes."

"Same reaction I had," Edward responded, a crooked smile crossing his face.

Bella glanced up at Edward, shaking her head slightly, but with a smile on her face. "He gets better after he gets to know you, I swear," she said while turning back to face me. I returned her gaze with a 'yeah, sure' look.

"Honestly, can't we just get him a dog house?" Rosalie asked as she stood up from the couch and turned off the television in one fluid motion.

Emmett immediately responded, "Hey, I was watching that!"

"I want to go hunting," Rosalie explained and pulled Emmett to his feet. He nodded and they both ran out of the back of the house, playing cat and mouse. I got the feeling that hunting wasn't the only thing they were going to do. Alice and Jasper quickly got up to 'go hunting' as well.

Edward and Bella then introduced me to their daughter. She was probably the nicest person I had ever meet, even when I refused shake her hand when she offered it to me as a greeting because I was still on edge. She told me about her trip with Jacob and a particularly awkward moment when Jacob and most of his pack mates sat down for a big dinner and Renesmee politely declined stating that she 'preferred blood'.

About an hour later Jacob came back downstairs after bringing in a couple more luggage bags from the car. "Hey, so about that levitation trick I did back there..."

"Ah, yes, I wanted to get this," Carlisle pointed to the space between Renesmee and I, "finished first before I wanted to ask you about that." Carlisle lead me out onto the back porch, Edward and Bella followed after while Jacob stayed in the kitchen and ate while talking to Esme and Renesmee.

"So, the only idea I have about making that vase float was that it was, basically, telekinesis."

"I think that's fair to assume," Edward theorized.

"Putting aside how awesome that is, do you have any idea how I can actually control it? Cause I have no clue how I did that," I asked, my expression shifting from excited to perplexed.

"Well you're still young," Carlisle began, "most times when a newborn has a power it tends to manifest when they are emotionally pushed in some way, such as when Emmett said that your schooling wasn't important."

I thought back to the incident that lead to me almost killing a girl, "I thought that was a very fortunately timed tremor from a small earthquake."

"That's what we thought too, but apparently that is not the case," responded Carlisle. "Now if you want to learn to control it you will just have to try to lift something on purpose."

"I know just the thing Carlisle," Edward said then made his way inside and came back out a second later with a small case. "Here use this," Edward sat the case on the table sitting in the corner of the porch.

"What's that?" I questioned.

Edward, Carlisle, and Bella looked at each other, a smile crossing each of their faces before they looked back at me. "It's a gift to symbolize that you're part of our family now."

"Yeah, but what is it exactly?" I asked again.

Bella answered, "We were just going to give it to you, but now we're thinking if you want to find out what's inside you'll have to hover it over to yourself."

My eyes squinted a little as I looked at them, "Alright, I like a challenge. You're on!" I grinned at them slyly. I had a few pranks I could play on my new family once I figured my ability out. Edward saw the various thoughts I had flash through my mind and grinned. _Shhhhhh!_

Edward giggled a bit and Bella eyed him, "What's so funny?"

"You'll see," Edward said while looking back at his wife and with his crooked grin. Bella didn't appear exactly pleased with his reaction, but didn't pry further.

I took a breath, turned, and stared down the small case sitting about ten feet away from me. Carlisle, Edward, and Bella took a seat behind me while concentrated on the case for almost five minutes, which to my vampire mind felt an eternity. _Come on, come on, move. _The case just sat there, almost taunting me. I just kept concentrating, but no matter how much I tried to will the case to move it wouldn't.

After spending most of the day trying to make this little case move, I was about ready to just give up. Carlisle, Edward, and Bella left after a couple hours of the nonevent, at one point replaced by Jacob, much to my chagrin, and Renesmee. They only stayed long enough for Renesmee to give me some encouraging remarks. I was about to stride over and just grab the damn case, but the moment I started forward Alice appeared out of the clearing with Jasper close behind, she stopped between me and the case, wagging her index finger. "Uh uh. You have to do it the right way, that's the deal," she taunted.

With a frustrated look, I replied, "How did you even..."

"Edward called me while we were out and told me the plan," she explained.

I sighed in defeat, both to Alice and my own inability, "I'm just not making any progress out here."

"You will," Alice stated as a fact, "just keep trying and don't you dare cheat." Jasper then lead Alice inside and I returned to my regularly schedule frustration. _I'm doing something wrong, but what? _I didn't know what else to try, I mean how does one go about making telekinesis work?

I finally decided to take a seat on one of the benches, my gaze still locked on the case, which was now a few extra feet away. "You've been out here for almost half the day," Bella emerged from the house. I realized it was nighttime.

"I just can't seem to make this work," the frustration in my voice was obvious, "Maybe it's just a reaction sort of thing. Maybe I can't do it on command."

She waved her hand, "You just aren't thinking the right way."

I looked over at her and an idea crossed my mind, "Well how do you project your shield?"

"My shield?" she asked while pointing to herself, "Well...I guess I just visualize it, like plastic wrap. I see it surrounding someone in my mind and then it just does."

"Hm..." I contemplated this for a second. Bella remained quiet as I turned back towards the case. "Ok!" I rubbed my hands together then extended one out towards the case. My imagination then took over and I saw an invisible hand extend out from mine and reach over to the case. When it made contact the case began to vibrate. _It's working! _The case began to pop up off the table just slightly before falling back down. _I can do this! Come on! _Taking a deep breath I mentally screamed at the case. _MOVE! _

Suddenly, the case sailed through the air towards me, though I had no control of it's speed or trajectory. It nearly smacked me in the face because it was moving so fast, but thankfully I was able to snatch it out of the air before it did. With one final sigh I relaxed and let my hands fall into my lap while Bella began clapping.

As soon as she started the rest of the family appeared on the porch beside her, including Rosalie and Emmett, who I didn't realize had returned. "See, told you could do it," Alice said with a smug satisfaction on her face. The reaction of everyone else was basically a collective 'congrats!'

"Go ahead," Carlisle smiled at me, "open it."

I looked down at the small wooden case that was now resting in my hands. My fingertips traveled over the top of the case, then popped the lid open. Inside was a new silver wristwatch, not super fancy or diamond studded and flash, but simple, elegant, and flawless. The face was a classic analogue watch with ornate hour and minute hands, but what was behind the hands of the watch is what really struck me. Engraved into the surface of the watch face was the Cullen family crest.


	9. Chapter 9: New

**Disclaimer: Characters from the Twilight novels / movies are the property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters are my property.**

**Thanks to Eni01, Reneseme30, and trinity spurlock for following the story! :D**

**Additional thanks also goes to Eni01 and Dixie.f.9. for converting that follow into a favorite! I'm really glad you like the story so far! Hope I don't let any of my followers or favorites down!**

**And as always REVIEW! Do it, it's helpful beyond belief to make the story better and keep me motivated.**

**Other than that I would just like to say Happy Holidays to everyone! This chapter is actually the longest one I've written yet, but it's sort of a transition chapter to get us to the new school. Hope you all enjoy it!**

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Chapter 9

New

Two, slow and agonizing, months went by, during which the Cullen's taught me how to handle being around humans. Their method for this was basically putting a loaded gun in the hands of a twitchy tweeker as I would sit in one of their cars and they would drive closer and closer to town each day.

The first couple weeks were the worst. Even with my thirst sated on animal blood my throat seared from the scent and sound of each and every person who passed by's heartbeat. At first Emmett would sit next to me and as we got close to town he would pin me down while Bella and Jasper attempted to keep my hunting instinct in check. It was a pretty rough start, especially considering I had dented out one of the rear doors of Emmett's Jeep when his grip slipped after I instinctively threw the tire iron in the back into his face with my mind. After that nothing that wasn't bolted or tied down as allowed in the car when we went on these expeditions.

Most days during my training I came home feeling pretty down, this only got worst as the days went by and controlling myself didn't seem to be getting any easier. I started to get really depressed until Jasper pointed out that the mere fact that it wasn't getting harder as we moved closer to town meant that I was making progress. My eyes were what was really helping to keep my spirits up though because that damned red was finally starting to dull. It was just in time too, since the first major snowfall of winter finally hit us just a few days later. Had I still been feeling down it wouldn't have helped; I found winter to be depressing.

Five weeks into my training, Emmett was flipping through channels when an alarming news broadcast came on. It was about the guy they found dead in the alleyway, the one I would have been in too if Carlisle hadn't found me while I bleed out onto the concrete. Apparently, the police thought they had another lead on the suspect responsible. It was the first time I had seen anything about my disappearance in the news and what I heard about me shocked me. The police thought I was dead. They had apparently found a huge pool blood in the alleyway and, after the lady at the ticket counter told police she saw me go into the alley, they compared my genetic profile on record, from me bouncing from foster home to foster home. When the test came back a match the police determined that I had to be dead because there was simply too much blood for someone to have survived that kind of an attack. _If only they knew._ This was sort of fortunate though; at least my face wasn't being plastered around as a missing person.

Due to the news broadcast as we started to near town we switched to Carlisle's car. It had extremely tinted windows to help hide my face. After a couple more weeks we were actually driving through town now and I was starting to feel more at ease with each passing day.

With just a week left until we were going to move it was decided, to much protesting from me, that it was time to have me walk around in town, not Hanover of course, but another town further away.

At this point my eyes were now pretty much black, but even so Alice made me wear a pair of large, mirror finish aviator sunglasses. The first trip to town saw the entire family head out with me as a precaution. It was a very awkward first attempt, I didn't try to pounce on anyone, but I definitely thought about it every time someone came within five feet of me but Edward would always put his hand on my shoulder and give it a slight squeeze to help get me back on track. The next two attempts got easier and easier, thankfully, as my thoughts were finally able to overcome my instincts and keep me calm, even without Jasper or Bella helping me.

My confidence soared for the first time in weeks. On the last run into town before we were to move I was surprised because it ended up being only Alice and I who went to town. I tried to convince others to go with us just as a precaution, but they all staunchly refused. At first I thought it was because they wanted to show me I could handle it, but it turns out that was not the case. Alice was taking me clothes shopping, since my entire wardrobe consisted of borrowed clothes at the moment, and apparently shopping with her was something to fear by the way my other siblings put it. _Maybe I should have backed out too._

It was like shopping with an over-caffeinated teenager. Alice buzzed around the store as fast as she could pull off without raising suspicion. As she flitted from one clothing rack to the next she snatched clothes with from them with sniper like accuracy. I stood near the changing rooms unsure if I should even try to pick something out. I had always just bought whatever was on sale when I went shopping and never to a fairly pricey store like this one. So for nearly an hour I just stood there waiting, mostly admiring the craftsmanship of my new watch to distract me from the scent of the human workers. Analogue watches always fascinated me; they have such a simple job, yet they are exceptionally complex inside.

Finally, after Alice made all of her selections, she appeared in front of me with several armfuls of clothes. "Here, I could only find a few that I think would look good on you," she stated. I looked at her in astonishment; she had at least 20 different outfits in her arms. She set the clothes on a chair then played dress up using me as her model. Every time I came out of the dressing room she would make me stand in front of a mirror as she critiqued how I looked and at the same time every single person, especially the girls, in the store would stare at me. It was probably one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever done and she made me do it twice because after going through the first round of clothes she pranced off to get more. _I really should have stayed home._

When Alice had finally decided on which outfits were best we trudged up to the front counter. I nearly had a panic attack after seeing the total. "Honestly, Alice, I don't need all of these clothes," I said, feeling guilty.

"Trust me, a couple thousand dollars is nothing," she said while turning to me, "so don't worry about it!" she added after seeing my expression. _Geez, they must be loaded if it's nothing, I still think twenty bucks is a lot of spending cash._

As we headed back home, the car filled with bags and bags of clothes, I asked, "Where are we moving to anyway?" realizing that I hadn't actually asked yet.

"Portland, Oregon," Alice answered, "well actually a little ways outside Portland, on the edge of a nearby forest."

"I've never been to Portland. Is it nice?" I inquired.

"It's not too bad, but it and the surrounding area is pretty cloudy so we can spend as many days in public as possible," Alice explained, "And the college we are going to is on the outer edge of the city, that way if we have any problems we aren't in the center of a highly populated area." I could tell when she said we she meant me more than anyone, but I didn't hold it against her.

When we arrived at home Emmett's Jeep was sitting outside the front door, already half filled with boxes. As soon as we stepped inside Alice pulled out an outfit from one of the bags and handed it to me, "go put this on and get the rest packed up." Fortunately I had already repacked the rest of my stuff so these new clothes were the only things left.

After everything was ready to go we set out for our new home. It was about a two day trip, fortunately we only had to stop for gas so it went a little faster than that; it also helps that none of the Cullens were driving the speed limit because Edward and Bella lead the long line of nice cars in his Volvo and he would just slow down if he heard any cops nearby. I rode with Jasper in Bella's Ferrari, honestly the nicest car I've ever been in, and he drilled me about the new identity I would assume at our new school.

"What's your name?" Jasper asked for the third time.

I quickly replied, "William Cullen, though I prefer to be called Will." Jasper had me replying as though I was being asked by one of my new teachers.

"You moved here with your family?" he continued.

"Yes, I was adopted by my mother and father, Carlisle and Esme." I answered.

Jasper followed up, "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Six of them actually," I looked at a sign that indicated we were twenty-five miles from the Idaho boarder. _I'm so bored!_

Jasper snapped his fingers, "Hey, concentrate! Now tell me about your siblings."

I paused for a second before answering, spotting a coyote chasing down a rabbit in the forest on the roadside, "Um...I have eight brothers and sisters, who are all adopted as well."

"Oh, really? So none of you are actually related to each other then?" Jasper inquired.

"Well actually, Rosalie and Edward are actually bother and sister, Bella and Renesmee are sisters too, but Emmett, Jasper, Alice, and I are all from separate families," I recited.

Jasper pulled out his phone and sent a text to someone, my guess was Alice, "When were you adopted?"

I put my elbow on the armrest and laid my head in my hand, not that I needed to relax. I just wanted Jasper to see how bored I was going over the same story for the sixth time, "About six years ago when my parents died in a car accident." My real life history fit in nicely with this part.

"Good, now lets go over it again," Jasper put his phone back in his pocket.

I sighed, "Can we please stop? My memory doesn't have any problems," I poked my head, "vampire, remember?"

"Fine, you've got it down," Jasper finally relented.

"Do you want to sing 100 bottles of beer on the wall?" I asked jokingly, Jasper responded with an angry look; guess he wasn't a singer.

When we finally reached our new home, that Esme had chosen, it was just as stunning as the previous one. The two story modern house's architecture was an amazing mixture of bright steel woods with creme colored walls. Most of the rear exterior of the house was covered in floor to ceiling windows with an amazing view of the forest it was set in. _Esme must really like these big open windows or maybe they all do. _The first story contained the kitchen, two story tall living room, a study, and the entrance hall of course. While the second contained all the bathrooms, bedrooms, and storage space we needed, which was a lot. It also had a massive deck that wrapped around the living room's side of the house and the roof extended out to provide some shelter in the rain.

We spent the weekend getting the house set up starting with our rooms then helped Esme decorate the new house, which didn't involve much since it came furnished and she had the help of ten other vampires. All the work really helped me keep calm because I was getting progressively more nervous about my first day back at school. _At least we are starting at the start of the second semester instead of in the middle of one. _Afterward a few of us went hunting before our first day, I wanted to make sure I was as prepared as possible.

When Edward, Emmett, Bella, and I returned we all changed clothes for school. As I finished putting on the first pair of pants and shirt I found in my dresser Alice came into my room, took one look at me, and exclaimed, "No, no, no!" She immediately sprang over to my dresser and pulled out a pair of blue jeans; a grey, button down, long sleeve shirt; and then pulled out a tan jacket.

"What are you doing?" I asked as she was rummaging through my clothes.

"You need to make a good first impression, besides after getting you all these clothes I want to make sure you are using them right," Alice laid the clothes out on a chair.

"What do you mean use them right?" a perplexed look filling my face.

Alice pointed at me and sighed, "You can't just throw any two pieces of clothes together and expect them to look good! Besides everyone will be staring at us anyway so I want to make sure everyone in this family makes a good first impression." I had almost forgotten that people were always staring at us when we were in public.

Jasper called up from downstairs, "She does it to all of us on our first day at a new school, just get used to it."

"I really don't want to attract any more attention to myself that I need to," I pleaded with her, hoping to just wear what I had on.

"Well suck it up because no one in my family is going to go to out in public wearing something like that," she gave me a frightening stare. It was a little insulting to be told that, basically, I didn't know how to dress myself, but with the look she was giving me and the fact that she was obviously a fashion freak I went along with her request with a large sigh.

Once everyone was ready, we headed out to our new school. We rode in two separate cars since there were so many of us and I ended up riding with Emmett, Jasper, and Edward in the Jeep, while the others rode in Rosalie's BMW. My nerves continued to spike with each passing minute and so did my excitement making the car ride agonizingly long. The guys tried to calm me down by making small talk; it wasn't very effective. Finally, after a nearly half hour drive, we pulled into the parking lot of the Portland Technical Institute. _Geronimo, I guess._

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**In case anyone is wondering I made up the school. I was going to use a real college in Portland, but the only one I could find that offered the kinds of classes that Will would take was smack dab in the middle of downtown and I figured the Cullens would prefer one on the edge of the city. That way they had an easy escape root if they needed to drag Will out of there. Just a little behind the scenes on my thought process.**


End file.
